INTERNATIONAL  SERVICE 

Through  missions 

. . . OR . . . 


MISSIONS  AS  AN  AGENCY 
FOR  PEACE 


REV.  JOHN  NELSON  MILLS,  D.  D. 
Washington,  D.  C. 


An  address  given  at  the  Lake  Junaluska  and  Montreat,  N.  C.,  Missionary 
Conferences,  Union  Theological  Seminary,  Richmond,  Fa., 
University  of  Rochester,  &c. 


RICHMOND  PRESS,  INC.,  PRINTERS 


il 


mTERNATIONAL  SERVICE  THROUGH  MISSIONS: 


OK 

MISSIONS  AS  AN  AGENCY  FOR  PEACE. 

Rev.  JoH2sr  Nelson  Mills,  D.  D., 

Washington^  D.  C. 

This  is  the  day  of  internationalism,  the  age  of  world-con- 
faciousness.  Every  one  is  getting  the  international  mind. 
We  look  upon  ourselves  as  citizens  of  the  world.  As  no 
man  liveth  to  himself,  so  we  feel  that  no  nation  liveth  to 
itself.  There  is  a community  of  interest  among  nations. 
Crop  failure  in  Russia,  Argentina  or  Mesopotamia  is  felt  in 
the  United  States.  No  part  of  the  world  is  so  remote  hut  that 
(he  agents  of  our  commercial  firms  are  to  be  found  there. 
Through  the  multiplication  of  railroads,  steamships,  cable  and 
telegraph  lines,  this  old  earth  has  been  made  to  shrink.  A 
number  of  years  ago  a lady  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  told  me  that  in 
her  early  life  she  went  with  her  husband  as  a missionary  to 
Iowa.  Before  leaving,  her  friends  gave  her  a farewell  recep- 
tion, when,  amid  tears  and  much  misgiving,  they  bade  her  an 
affectionate  farewell,  never  expecting  to  see  her  again,  for  she 
was  going  to  far-off  Iowa.  Well,  she  lived  to  get  hack  to  Al- 
bany many  times,  and  may  be  living  there  to-day.  Now,  Peking 
is  nearer  New  York  to-day  than  Iowa  was  to  Albany  in  1835. 

Two  years  ago  a friend  of  mine  asked  the  Chief  of  Police 
of  San  I’rancisco  where  the  center  of  vice  of  that  city  was. 
What  was  his  surprise  to  hear  the  chief  locate  it  in  Shanghai, 
China.  So,  then,  to  clean  up  San  Francisco,  and  keep  it  clean, 
it  is  necessary  to  clean  up  Shanghai.  And,  in  the  same  way, 
if  we  are  to  make  the  United  States  wholesome  and  pure,  we 
must  attend  to  the  moral  condition  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 
As  Booker  Washington  used  to  say,  referring  to  his  race, 
“You  can’t  keep  part  of  the  people  down  without  all  the  peo- 
ple getting  down  in  a measure.”  To  permit  any  part  of  the 
world  to  live  in  ignorance,  superstition  and  sin  is  sure  to 
prove  disastrous  to  our  own  moral  life.  And  statesmen  are 
begiiming  to  recognize  this;  so  that  there  will  be,  after  tliis 


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vrar,  a closer  and  more  helpful  relation  between  the  nations 
than  there  has  been  heretofore. 

The  day  of  the  “hermit”  nations  has  gone  by.  Korea  was 
the  last.  And  Korea  was  opened  to  the  world  in  1884  by 
Presbyterian  missionaries.  Japan  persisted  until  Commodore 
Perry,  in  company  with  S.  Wells  Williams,  a missionary,  en- 
tered the  harbor  of  Yokahama  in  1853.  Africa  might  still  be 
‘•'the  dark  continent”  had  it  not  been  for  the  labors  of  David 
TJvingstone,  a missionary. 

That  oft-quoted  sentence  of  Kipling’s,  therefore,  “The  east 
is  east  and  the  west  is  west,”  is  no  longer  true.  The  world  is 
one.  Christianity  is  international  or  it  is  not  Christian.  Chris- 
tianity is  for  the  world  or  it  is  for  nobody.  All  nations  must 
he  Christian  or  none  will  be. 

Now,  I will  say  quite  frankly  that  the  early  missionaries 
did  not  go  out  for  the  purpose  of  doing  international  service. 
The  heathen  without  the  gospel  were  lost,  and  they  went  out 
to  save  them.  To  found  schools  and  hospitals,  to  educate  the 
blind  and  the  deaf  and  dumb,  to  minister  to  lepers  and  insane, 
to  lead  in  all  manner  of  I'eform,  to  become  almoners  of  relief 
funds,  to  pave  the  way  for  interchange  of  commerce,  to  pro- 
mote diplomatic  relations  and  aid  backward  nations  to  assume 
international  functions — none  of  these  was  the  purpose  of  the 
early  missionaries.  But  they  did  all  of  them. 

Finding  heathen  nations  suspicious  if  not  hostile,  the 
missionaries  created  confidence  and  good  will.  Finding  them 
ignorant  of  western  diplomatic  procedure,  by  becoming  ad- 
visers of  native  rulers,  they  introduced  their  peoples  to  the 
family  of  nations.  When  there  were  misunderstandings  be- 
tween diplomats  and  natives,  the  missionaries  intervened  and 
became  mediators.  So  that  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  at  one 
time  Governor  of  Cape  Colony,  said:  “I  have  always  relied 
more  upon  the  labors  of  missionaries  for  the  peaceful  govern- 
ment of  the  natives  than  upon  the  presence  of  British  troops.” 
And  General  Charles  Warren,  Governor  of  Natal:  “For  the 
preservation  of  peace  between  colonists  and  natives  one  mis- 
sionary is  worth  a battalion  of  soldiers.”  And  our  Gen.  Crow- 
der: “Missionaries  can  do  more  than  diplomats  or  business 


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men  to  maintain  international  peace  and  promote  harmonious 
relations  between  the  United  States  and  the  Far  East.”  In- 
deed, our  government  at  Washington  wdll  not  send  out  a rep- 
resentative to  these  people  without,  oftentimes,  instructing  him 
to  take  no  important  step  nor  act  in  any  emergency  without 
first  consulting  the  local  missionary. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  missionary  work  has  broadened  our 
outlook  upon  the  world.  It  has  made  us  less  provincial.  It 
has  quickened  our  interest  in  distant  and  alien  peoples,  and, 
in  a measure,  removed  race  prejudice.  Now  only  Christians, 
as  a rule,  have  this  broad  outlook,  this  interest  in  distant  and 
alien  peoples.  And,  I may  add,  only  those  Christians  who 
are  interested  in  Foreign  Missions. 

Our  first  treaty  with  China  was  negotiated  in  1844  by  the 
Hon.  Caleb  Cushing  and  Dr.  Peter  Parker,  the  first  medical 
missionary  to  China,  and  a Presbyterian.  It  is  said  that  Peter 
Parker  opened  China  at  the  point  of  a lancet.  Parker  then 
became  United  States  Commissioner  to  China,  acting  in  that 
capacity  until  the  appointment  of  Anson  Burlingame,  our  first 
United  States  Minister,  in  1861.  In  his  latter  years  Dr. 
Parker  came  to  Washington  to  live,  and  his  name  is  still  to  be 
seen  on  the  silver  plate  surrounding  the  door-bell  of  1 Jack- 
son  Place,  opposite  the  White  House. 

The  first  Korean  Embassy  was  brought  over  to  this  country 
by  Dr.  Allen,  another  Presbyterian  missionary.  Dr.  Allen  was 
Secretary  to  this  Embassy  until  appointed  Consul  General  at 
Seoul,  and  later  United  States  Minister  to  Korea. 

When  the  United  States  Government  directed  Commodore 
Perry  to  open  Japan  to  the  commerce  of  the  world,  he  request- 
ed that  S.  Wells  Williams,  a Congregational  missionary,  ac- 
company him  as  interpreter.  And  the  hand  and  brain  of  Dr. 
Williams  are  to  be  seen  in  the  treaty  made  with  Japan  at  that 
time.  It  was  this,  along  with  other  events  that  occurred  later, 
that  led  Prince  Ito  to  say:  “Japan’s  progress  and  develop- 
ment are  largely  due  to  the  influence  of  missionaries,  exerted 
in  the  right  direction  when  Japan  was  first  studying  the  outer 
world.” 


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Education  was  not  in  the  original  purpose  of  missions.  But 
il  was  soon  realized  that  the  best  way  of  approach  to  the 
heathen  was  through  the  children;  and  that  if  the  work  was 
1e  be  permanent  and  wide  reaching,  there  must  be  a trained 
native  missionary  and  teaching  force.  So  that  to-day  every 
mission  field  has  many  schools  and  colleges,  some  of  the  latter 
comparing  favorably  with  those  we  have  at  home. 

And  they  are  educating  women.  Now,  this  may  not  sound 
very  strange  to  you;  but  when  the  late  Emperor  of  Japan,  a 
leally  great  man,  issued  his  famous  Rescript  on  Education  in 
1S71,  he  put  into  it  this  sentence:  “Japanese  women  are 
without  understanding.”  And  when  the  missionaries  began  to 
<^pen  schools  for  girls  in  China,  the  Chinese  said:  “These 
missionaries  will  be  trying  to  teach  our  cows  next.”  One  was 
quite  as  impossible  and  useless  as  the  other,  they  thought.  Even 
a great  mandarin  asked:  “What  possible  use  can  a woman 
have  for  a book  except  as  a place  in  which  to  store  her  em- 
broidery threads?” 

And  good  old  Alexander  Duff,  who  did  so  much  for  edu- 
cation in  India,  was  so  convinced  of  the  prejudice  of  that 
people  against  female  education  that  he  was  led  to  say:  “It 
is  as  fantastic  to  think  of  educating  women  in  India  as  it 
would  be  to  attempt  to  scale  a wall  300  yards  high  with  your 
hands  and  feet.”  Well,  the  impossible  has  been  accomplished; 
for  beside  being  admitted  to  five  of  the  national  universities 
on  the  same  footing  as  men,  there  is  now  a great  woman’s  col- 
lege in  India. 

WTen  I went  out  to  the  Indemnity  College,  some  five  miles 
from  Peking,  I was  surprised  to  learn  that  of  the  seventeen 
foreign  teachers  in  the  institution  at  that  time,  five  were  women. 
Think  of  it,  women  teaching  the  most  select  body  of  young 
men  in  China ! And  the  Chinese  Government  is  not  only  send- 
ing over  young  men  to  this  country  to  have  their  education 
completed  in  our  colleges  and  universities,  but  is  now  sending 
young  women.  Ten  came  four  years  ago,  and  I met  nearly 
all  of  them  at  Smith  College.  The  next  year  twelve  came,  and 
last  year  fifteen. 


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Those  large  Bible  classes  in  Korea,  of  which  you  have  all 
heard,  are  made  up  largely  of  women,  who  have  learned  to 
read  in  order  that  they  might  study  the  Word  of  God.  And 
Japan,  beside  admitting  women  to  her  two  great  national  uni- 
versities, has  just  opened  a woman’s  college  with  500  students. 

And  what  international  service  has  this  education  accom- 
plished? Well,  in  Japan  the  students  who  sat  under  the  in- 
struction of  Guido  Verbeck,  the  missionary  who,  at  the  invi- 
tation of  the  late  Emperor,  organized  the  Imperial  University 
of  Tokyo,  were  the  foremost  men  of  Japan  of  the  last  and 
present  generations,  among  them  Count  Okuma,  late  Prime 
Minister.  And  it  was  Verbeck  who  proposed  and  organized 
that  first  traveling  embassy  which  visited  America  and  Europe 
in  1871  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  nations  of  the  west 
and  with  modern  civilization,  nine  members  of  the  embassy 
being  Verbeck ’s  students. 

The  Republic  of  China,  together  with  the  Revolution  that 
led  up  to  it,  are  the  indirect  result  of  missionary  teaching. 
Sun  Yat-Sen,  the  organizer  of  the  Revolution,  and  his  chief 
assistants,  a majority  of  the  first  National  Congress,  nine- 
tenths  of  the  Provincial  Parliament  of  Nanking,  and  all  but 
two  of  the  Provincial  Parliament  that  met  in  Canton  were 
from  our  Christian  mission  schools — as  is  also  Mr.  Koo,  China’s 
representative  at  Washington.  And  every  one  of  the  national 
universities  is  presided  over  either  by  a missionary  or  by  a 
graduate  of  a mission  school. 

In  18G8  Domingo  Sarmiento  was  representing  Argentina  at 
Washington  when  ho  was  elected  President  of  that  Republic. 
He  returned  with  the  slogan,  “The  more  schools  the  fewer 
revolutions,”  and  appointed  the  Rev.  William  Goodfellow,  an 
American  missionary.  Minister  of  Education.  And,  patterning 
after  his  example,  President  Alfaro,  of  Ecquador,  appointed 
the  Rev.  Thomas  B.  Wood,  another  Methodist  missionary,  Com- 
missioner of  Education  for  that  Republic. 

It  is  said  that  one-half  of  the  leading  politicians  of  Bul- 
garia and  Rumelia  are  graduates  of  Robert  College,  Constan- 
tinople. Mr.  Panaretoff,  Bulgarian  minister  to  this  country, 


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ivS  not  only  a graduate  of  Eobert  College,  but  for  twenty-five 
years  was  a teacher  in  that  institution.  The  same  infiuence, 
in  a slightly  lesser  degree,  has  been  exerted  by  the  Syrian 
Protestant  College  at  Beirut,  Syria.  So  that  Mr.  E.  T.  Noyes, 
at  one  time  United  States  minister  to  Turkey,  was  led  to  say: 
“By  actual  observation  I know  that  wherever  a conspicuously 
intelligent  and  enterprising  man  or  woman  is  found  in  the 
East — one  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  modern  civilization — it 
is  always  found  that  he  or  she  was  educated  in  an  American 
mission  college.” 

Medical  work  was  also  an  after-thought.  But  our  mission- 
aries could  not  submit  to  the  practice  of  the  native  doctor, 
which,  in  some  places,  consisted  in  prescribing  live  sjnders  as 
a cure  for  baby’s  colic,  putting  fleas  in  the  ear  as  a remedy 
for  lethargy,  and  thrusting  red-hot  needles  into  the  stomach, 
and  leaving  them  there,  as  a specific  for  indigestion.  So  that 
medical  missionaries  were  sent  out.  And  these,  of  course, 
did  not  confine  their  labors  to  the  missionaries.  The  rcsvilt 
being  that  to-day  every  mission  field  has  hospitals  and  medical 
schools.  As  to  the  quality  of  the  work  done  in  these  I refer 
you  to  the  Kockefeller  Foundation. 

A few  years  ago  Mr.  John  D,  Rockefeller,  having  more 
money  than  he  could  spend,  petitioned  the  United  States  Con- 
gress for  a charter  to  organize  the  Rockefeller  Foundation, 
with  an  endowment  of  $400,000,000.  Those  gentlemen  who 
sit  upon  the  hill  of  my  home  city  and  make  the  laws  for  the 
country  were  astounded  at  the  proposition.  Up  to  that  time 
they  had  never  heard  of  so  large  a sum  of  money.  And,  al- 
though Mr.  Rockefeller  stipulated  that  the  Governor  of  JSTew 
York  State,  the  Mayor  of  New  York  City,  and  the  presidents 
of  Yale,  Columbia  and  other  universities  should  be  a self-per- 
petuating board  of  trustees,  our  Congressmen  declared  that  it 
would  be  unsafe  for  our  government  to  place  such  a sum  of 
money  in  the  hands  of  any  body  of  men,  no  matter  how  honor- 
able. And  they  refused  the  request.  Then  Mr.  Rockefeller 
went  to  the  Legislature  of  his  State,  and  there  he  had  better 


7 


success,  for  they  did  grant  him  the  privilege  of  organizing 
such  a foundation  with  an  endowment  of  $100,000,000. 

Kow  Mr.  Ivockefeller  had  no  idea  of  spending  all  that  money 
upon  the  people  of  his  own  city  or  of  his  own  country.  In 
other  words,  he  believed  in  Foreign  Missions.  There  are  some 
people,  you  know,  who  do  not.  They  tell  you  that  we  have 
enough  to  do  at  home.  And  I suppose  there  were  those  who 
(old  our  Saviour  the  same  thing  when  he  commissioned  the 
disciples  to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature.  But  they  went;  and  we  find  the  New  Testa- 
ment largely  taken  up  with  their  missionary  letters  and  a 
record  of  their  journey ings. 

This  distinction  between  Home  Missions  and  Foreign  Mis- 
sions I never  could  understand.  Some  of  our  churches  work 
in  Mexico  and  Cuba  under  their  Home  Board  and  some  under 
their  Foreign  Board.  I can  remember  when  we  called  our 
work  in  Alaska  and  among  the  Indians  Foreign  Missions.  Of 
course  those  are  both  Home  Missions  now.  And  we  Northern 
Presbyterians  have  this  strange  anomaly,  that  we  operate  our 
work  among  the  Chinese  in  San  Francisco  and  Portland  as 
Foreign  Missions,  while  that  among  the  same  people  in  Chicago 
and  New  York  is  operated  as  Home  Missions. 

Well,  Mr.  Rockefeller  believes  in  Foreign  Missions.  So  he 
sent  Dr.  Burton  and  Dr.  Chamberlain,  of  Chicago  University, 
around  the  world  to  see  where  there  was  the  greatest  need. 
These  men  spent  a year  in  making  the  investigation,  and  then 
reported  that  the  greatest  need  was  medical  work  in  China. 
So  then  Mr.  Rockefeller  sent  Dr.  Starr  Murphy,  Dr.  Simon 
Flexner,  a Jew,  both  of  New  York  City,  and  Professor  Wil- 
liam Welch,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  to  China  to  see 
hew  that  need  could  bo  best  met.  These  men  traveled  over 
China,  investigating,  among  other  things,  the  medical  work 
done  by  the  various  Churches;  and  came  back  and  reported 
that  this  work  was  so  well  done  that  the  best  thing  the  Foun- 
dation could  do  was  to  take  it  over,  wherever  possible,  and 
carry  it  on  with  their  greater  resources.  So  the  Foundation 
took  over  the  Union  Medical  School  and  hospital  at  Peking, 


8 


paying  the  six  denominational  Boards  that  were  interested  in 
i+  the  $200,000  which  they  had  put  into  the  plant,  and  then 
making  one  representative  of  each  Church  a member  of  the 
board  of  trustees.  This  they  are  preparing  to  do  with  the 
medical  work  in  Shanghai  and  in  other  parts  of  China,  wher- 
ever the  present  management  is  willing.  And  they  assure  the 
secretaries  of  our  Mission  Boards  that  they  will  send  out  no 
representatives  of  the  Foundation  who  are  not  first  commis- 
sioned by  our  evangelical  churches  as  missionaries.  kTow,  my 
friends,  if  you  want  a better  testimonial  to  the  efficiency  of 
our  medical  missions  than  that,  I do  not  know  where  you  would 
go  to  find  it. 

The  students  and  alumni  of  Harvard  University  and  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  opened  medical  work  in  Shanghai, 
and  those  of  Yale  University  at  Changsha.  And  the  students 
and  alumni  of  Yale  spend  $30,000  a year  on  this  work. 

When  I was  in  Canton  I visited  our  Presbyterian  Institu- 
tion for  the  Insane  there — the  first  and  greatest  of  its  kind  in 
any  heathen  country.  Now  what  do  you  suppose  we  did  in 
order  to  get  patients?  Advertise,  by  great  posters,  on  the 
walls  of  the  city,  in  Chinese  fashion,  saying  that  we  had  opened 
this  asylum  and  were  now  prepared  to  treat  their  insane  with 
the  most  modem  and  approved  methods  ? We  might  have  done 
that  for  a thousand  years  and  not  got  a single  patient.  What 
we  did  was  to  send  the  police  and  soldiery  into  the  dark,  damp 
basements  where  we  knew  there  were  insane  people  chained  to 
the  stone  floors,  and  drag  them  out  that  they  might  receive 
the  treatment  we  were  prepared  to  give.  Why,  you  couldn’t 
convince  a Chinaman  with  a hundred  years  of  argument  that 
there  were  people,  living  10,000  miles  away,  speaking  a dif- 
ferent language  and  worshiping  a different  God,  who  were 
Avilling  to  come  over  there  and  do  for  their  people  what  none 
of  them  ever  thought  of  doing.  But  they  have  been  convinced ; 
and  I was  shown  a fine  building,  erected  by  a Chinese  for  his 
insane  mother,  which  was  to  revert  to  the  institution  after  her 
death. 

Every  manner  of  reform  has  been  led  by  missionaries.  The 


9 


hcrrors  of  African  slavery,  ‘ ‘the  open  sore  of  the  world,”  as  he 
called  it,  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  Christian  people  by 
David  Livingstone.  The  crusade  against  caste,  child  marriage 
and  the  burning  of  widows  in  India ; against  foot-binding  and 
the  use  of  opium  in  China;  and  against  the  excessive  employ- 
ment of  women  and  little  girls,  under  most  trying  conditions,  in 
the  factories  of  Japan,  has  been  led  by  missionaries.  We  hear  a 
great  deal  about  the  progressiveness  of  Japan.  And  Japan  is 
very  progressive.  But,  whereas  the  United  States  employs  only 
fourteen  women  to  eighty-six  men  in  her  factories;  Germany, 
before  the  war,  twenty  women  for  every  eighty  men,  and 
Great  Britain  twenty-five  women  to  seventy-five  men;  in  Japan 
there  are  sixty-five  women  at  work  in  her  factories  to  thirty- 
five  men.  And  they  are  practically  slaves — hound  out  for  a 
certain  number  of  years;  confined  within  walls,  and  permiU 
ted  to  leave  only  very  rarely ; all  of  them  small,  most  of  them 
delicate,  and  many  but  mere  children ; working  twelve  or  four- 
teen hours  every  day,  or  night;  and  receiving  for  wages  from 
eight  to  thirty-two  cents  a day,  or  an  average  of  sixteen  cents. 
Well,  the  missionaries  are  doing  much  for  these  poor  women. 
I attended  one  of  their  night  schools,  held,  of  course,  within 
the  walls  of  the  factory;  and  heard  of  the  changes  which  were 
gradually  being  brought  about  in  these  conditions,  largely 
<hrough  their  efforts. 

Whenever  relief  funds  are  to  be  distributed  to  the  famine 
sufferers  of  India  or  China,  it  is  always  the  missionaries  who 
ere  asked  to  do  it.  Since  this  war  began  the  Presbyterian 
missionaries  of  Syria  alone  have  distributed  more  than  $2,- 
000,000  in  this  way,  the  gift  of  Syrians  in  this  country. 

It  is  said  that  the  business  of  a country  follows  its  flag.  But 
it  is  far  more  true  to  say  that  the  business  of  a country  fol- 
lows its  missionaries.  And  the  missionaries  go  a great  deal 
further  than  the  flag.  The  missionary,  of  course,  always  has 
a watch ; and,  if  he  is  an  American,  it  is  apt  to  be  an  Elgin 
or  a Waltham.  The  natives,  seeing  what  a beautiful  and  use- 
ful thing  a watch  is,  want  one,  and,  of  course,  send  to  America 
(o  get  it.  The  missionary’s  wife  has  a sewing  machine,  and 


10 


it  is  sure  to  be  a Singer.  I never  went  so  far  afield  that  I did 
not  see  that  “S”  advertising  the  Singer  sewing  machine.  And 
the  women  of  the  country  must  have  one.  And  so  our  Ameri- 
can trade  grows.  When  I was  in  Tientsin  I saw  upon  the 
wharves  there  great  piles  of  fiour,  100  feet  long,  40  feet  wide 
and  20  feet  high.  Now,  the  milling  firms  of  Minneapolis 
could  well  afford  to  repay  the  Mission  Boards  of  the  various 
Churches  for  all  they  have  spent  in  Christianizing  the  Chinese, 
since  it  is  the  missionaries  that  have  taught  them  also  the 
use  of  American  flour.  No  Chinaman  ever  saw  a bath-tub,  or 
would  have  known  what  a bath-tub  was  for  had  it  not  been 
shown  to  him  by  a missionary.  But  since  that  time  a single 
firm  of  Pittsburgh  has  made  itself  rich  sending  bath-tubs  in 
the  wake  of  the  missionary. 

No  merchant  ship  ever  dared  to  stop  at  the  Fiji  Islands 
until  missionaries  went  there  in  1835  and  began  their  work 
.among  a race  of  cannibals.  But  now,  in  a recent  census  taken 
of  those  islands,  there  was  returned  a population  of  90,000 — 
83,000  of  whom  said  they  were  Methodists,  35,000  actually 
belonging  to  that  Church.  Now  this  is  more  Methodists  than 
there  were  in  the  world  at  the  death  of  John  Wesley.  And 
these  people  were  giving  $50,000  a year  to  Foreign  Missions — 
a much  larger  sum  than  many  of  our  American  churches  are 
giving.  Another  cannibal  island  was  the  New  Hebrides.  But 
not  long  ago  a traveler  returned  from  those  islands  and  said 
that  he  had  sat  down  at  a Communion  table  there  where  ho 
was  sure  there  were  one  hundred  men  sitting  with  him  who 
had  tasted  human  flesh. 

A few  years  ago  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  San  Fran- 
cisco selected  twenty-five  business  men  from  the  great  cities 
of  the  West — Spokane,  Seattle,  Portland,  San  Francisco,  Los 
Angeles,  and  San  Diego — and  sent  them  out  to  China  to  see 
what  might  be  done  to  increase  the  trade  between  the  United 
States  and  that  new  republic.  While  on  the  way  out  the  men 
had  a vote  as  to  their  interest  in  missions,  for  they  felt  that, 
some  way,  this  question  might  enter  into  their  investigations. 
The  vote  showed  that  one-third  of  them  believed  in  foreign 


11 


missions,  one-third  did  not,  and  one-third  were  indifferent. 
The  men  made  their  tour,  and  upon  their  return  to  Shanghai 
they  took  another  vote,  in  which  they  voted  unanimoiisly  that 
there  was  a very  intimate  relation  between  missions  and  com- 
merce; and  that,  had  it  not  been  for  missions,  there  would  be 
no  commerce  whatever  with  the  interior  of  China.  A promi- 
nent statesman  of  Great  Britain  has  said  that,  after  a mission- 
ary has  been  twenty-five  years  on  the  field,  he  is  worth  $50,000 
a year  to  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain, 

Missionaries  have  been  of  great  service  in  the  inventions 
they  have  made  and  given  to  those  countries  where  they  la- 
bored. It  was  the  Eev.  D.  Z.  Sheffield  that  invented  a type- 
writer for  the  Chinese.  I cannot  conceive  what  that  would  be 
like,  for  the  Chinese  have  40,000  to  60,000  characters  in  their 
language,  and  use  from  4,000  to  6,000  in  daily  conversation. 
And  it  was  a Mr.  Phinney,  superintendent  of  the  Baptist 
Press  at  Rangoon,  that  did  the  same  service  for  the  Burmese. 
That  most  comfortable  and  convenient  of  all  vehicles,  the  jin- 
rikisha,  was  also  the  invention  of  a Baptist  missionary.  Liv- 
ing in  Ceylon,  and  having  an  invalid  wife,  he  invented  for 
her  this  ‘ ‘pullman”  car,  drawn  by  a man,  placing  himself  be- 
tween the  two  shafts. 

But,  unfortunately,  our  commercial  relations  with  mission 
lands  have  not  always  been  so  helpful.  Most  business  men, 
when  they  leave  this  country,  leave  behind  them  their  religion 
also,  many  of  them  their  morals  and  all  decency  as  well.  The. 
Hon.  John  W.  Barrett,  lately  United  States  Minister  to  Siam, 
says  that  during  his  five  years  of  service  in  that  country  the 
150  missionaries  gave  him  less  trouble  than  the  fifteen  busi- 
ness men  did  in  five  months  And  yet  these  are  the  people 
who  criticize  missionaries. 

The  ship  that  carried  the  first  missionaries  from  the  United 
States  to  Africa  carried  also,  as  you  know,  a cargo  of  rum. 
And,  I am  sorry  to  say,  the  rum  has  had  a wider  influence 
than  the  missionaries.  Ho  sooner  did  China  rid  herself  of  the 
opium  traffic  than  the  Anglo-American  Tobacco  Company  took 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  and  flooded  the  country  with  its 


12 


wares,  its  motto  being,  “A  cigarette  in  the  mouth  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  China.”  And  when  John  It.  Mott 
was  holding  his  evangelistic  services  in  the  Temple  of  Heaven, 
Peking,  the  emissaries  of  this  corporation  were  distributing 
free  cigarettes  among  the  crowd.  In  1916  British  firms  smug- 
gled into  China  sixteen  tons  of  morphine  with  which  to  de- 
bauch that  people. 

A few  weeks  ago  I cut  this  item  out  of  a newspaper:  “Al- 
coholic liquors  in  large  quantities  are  being  shipped  from 
America  to  Africa,  China  and  other  countries.  The  amount 
of  liquor  passing  Madeira,  a port  of  registry  for  the  coast  of 
Africa,  in  one  week  is  reported  as  follows : Twenty-eight  thou- 
sand cases  of  whiskey,  30,000  cases  of  brandy,  30,000  cases  of 
Old  Tom,  36,000  barrels  of  rum,  800,000  demijohns  of  rum, 
24,000  bottles  of  rum,  15,000  barrels  of  absinthe,  900,000 
cases  of  gin.  Since  the  war  began  55  per  cent,  of  all  the  liquor 
shipped  to  Africa  goes  from  the  port  of  Boston.” 

My  friends,  is  it  not  time  that  the  United  States  adopted 
the  trade  policy  that  it  will  have  no  business  relations  with 
mission  countries  which  are  not  accompanied  by  the  Christian 
or  missionary  spirit?  For  any  other,  I assure  you,  are  not 
only  short-sighted  and  defective,  but,  in  the  end,  are  sure  to 
prove  fatal. 

And  now  I have  left  myself  little  time  to  speak  of  the 
gTeatest  international  service  of  all,  viz.,  evangelism.  I shall 
only  mention  two  very  great  services,  the  doing  away,  in  a 
measure,  with  idolatry  and  superstition.  One  of  the  most 
widely  worshiped  of  the  300,000,000  gods  of  India  is  Kali, 
wife  of  Shiva.  She  is  black,  with  a necklace  of  human  skulls 
around  her  neck,  her  tong-ue,  protruding  from  her  mouth, 
dripping  with  blood,  and  her  many  hands,  grasping  knives 
and  swords,  red  with  the  blood  of  her  victims.  There  are 
temples  in  India,  marvelously  carved,  but  so  obscene  that  no 
Christian  woman  dare  enter  them.  On  the  way  to  India  I 
traveled  with  some  people  from  Chicago.  They  said  very 
plainly  to  me  that  they  did  not  believe  in  foreign  missions.  I 
did  not  see  them  again  until  we  reached  Singapore.  And  then 


13 


the  first  words  they  said  to  me  were : “Dr.  Mills,  we  have  been 
to  Benares,  and  we  believe  in  foreign  missions."’  Among  other 
tilings,  they  had  seen  women  worshiping  cows. 

I shall  not  mention  the  superstition  of  the  Africans  or  other 
uncivilized  races,  only  of  the  Chinese,  the  most  remarkable 
people  on  earth,  as  many  believe.  Wherever  you  travel  in 
China  you  see  those  beautiful  pagodas,  five,  seven,  nine,  al- 
ways some  odd  number  of  stories,  set  high  upon  the  hills  and 
the  walls  of  the  cities  Their  object,  among  other  things,  is  to 
intercept  the  ‘Tung  shwe,”  or  evil  spirits  as  they  fly  through 
the  air.  When  you  enter  the  gates  of  a city  you  find  that 
they  are  nearly  always  two  in  number,  and  that  they  are  not 
placed  opposite  each  other.  In  going  down  a street  of  old 
China  you  go  a certain  distance  and  then  come  up  against  a 
wall,  and  must  turn  to  the  right  or  the  left.  And  in 
entering  a house  you  do  not  enter  at  once,  but  you  go  through 
one  door,  and  then,  confronted  by  a wall,  you  turn  either 
to  the  right  or  left.  All  this  was  done  in  order  to  intercept 
the  evil  spirits;  for  it  seems  that  these,  for  some  reason,  can 
only  travel  in  straight  lines.  A grave  is  located  in  China  only 
after  consultation  with  the  Taoist  priest,  a sort  of  witch  doc- 
tor. And,  once  it  is  located,  it  can  never  be  changed.  In 
North  China  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  the 
best  farming  lands  covered  with  graves,  marked  by  mounds  of 
earth  three  and  four  feet  high  and  higher,  all  carefully  kept; 
and  in  South  China  the  same  vast  areas  covered  with  graves 
in  crescent  form,  of  earth,  brick  or  concrete.  There  is  one 
cemetery  outside  of  Canton  that  is  thirty  miles  long,  some  of 
the  graves  having  been  there  for  thousands  of  years.  But 
China  is  changing.  Missionaries  have  been  at  work  there,  as 
in  India,  for  100  years,  and  superstition  is  giving  way.  In 
Mukden,  the  capital  of  Manchuria,  I saw  a street  being  cut 
right  through  a cemetery,  the  bones  being  gathered  up  and 
cast  into  a cart  preparatory  to  burning. 

In  the  year  1916  the  United  States  Government  spent  $200,- 
000,000  trying  to  settle  some  troubles  in  Mexico.  That  is  a 
larger  sum  of  money  than  has  been  spent  by  the  people  of 


14 


fills  country  upon  Foreign  Missions  since  their  beginning — 
an  amount  sufficient  to  have  built  a church  and  school  in 
every  town  of  that  republic,  planted  a college  in  each  province 
and  given  to  every  peon  a farm  of  two  or  three  acres.  But 
what  was  accomplished  ? The  increased  suspicion  and  hatred, 
not  only  of  Mexico,  but  of  all  Latin  America,  and  I traveled  m 
South  America  six  months  last  year. 

In  1900  the  Boxer  uprising  took  place  in  China,  during 
which  much  foreign  property  was  destroyed  and  many  lives 
lost.  The  foreign  governments  assessed  China  for  $300,000,- 
000  damage.  Our  assessment  was  $24,000,000,  a large  sum, 
hut  small  compared  with  that  of  other  governments,  Bussia’s 
assessment  is  for  $50,000,000,  and  she  is  insisting  on  the  pay- 
ment of  all  of  it.  Well,  our  government  became  conscience- 
stricken.  No  indemnity  had  been  asked  for  by  any  of  the 
Mission  Boards  for  the  lives  lost,  and  only  partial  indemnity 
for  the  property  destroyed.  So  wo  returned  to  China  some- 
thing over  $11,000,000  of  this  claim.  And  then  what  hap- 
pened? Just  what  might  have  been  expected.  The  Chinese, 
out  of  gratitude,  took  that  money  and  founded  that  great  In- 
demnity College,  about  five  miles  out  of  Peking,  where  they 
are  fitting  the  choicest  young  men  of  China  for  American  Col- 
leges and  Universities,  to  which  they  are  sent  at  the  rate  of 
fifty  to  one  hundred  every  year,  to  have  their  education  com- 
pleted, and  then  returned  to  China  to  further  cement  the  bond 
of  union  between  this  country  and  that  great,  new  republic. 

My  friends,  this  world  is  committing  suicide  to-day  through 
national  selfishness,  Avhereas  there  can  be  no  guarantee  for  the 
future  of  mankind  save  through  international  friendliness.  So 
long  as  there  is  a single  great  nation  that  magnifies  nationalism 
above  internationalism,  just  so  long  will  the  peace  and  wek 
fare  of  the  wmrld  be  menaced.  I close  as  I began.  Chris- 
tianity is  international  or  it  is  not  Christian.  Christianity 
is  for  the  world  or  it  is  for  nobody.  All  nations  must  be 
Christian  or  none  will  be. 


